Biography

American government official and White House Chief of Staff under President Jimmy Carter. The son of a prosperous insurance agent, he earned a degree in poli-science at the University of Georgia. In 1967 and '68 he served in Vietnam with the Volunteer Services. On his return to Georgia, impressed with Carter, he joined his team, becoming a wunderkind, flowering in the closeness of a mentoring relationship. A maverick strategist, he masterminded Carter's Presidential Campaign from the beginning in 1966. Smart, shrewd and full of common sense, he has been called "Machiavelli in blue-jeans," a secret service diplomatic negotiator during the Iranian hostage crisis. Anecdotes also came out of Washington of a remarkable lack of tact and good taste for a man in his position.

When Carter lost the 1980 election, Jordan returned to Georgia where he was a distinguished visiting fellow at Emory University while writing his critically acclaimed "Crisis: The Last Year of the Carter Presidency." Since 1982, Jordan worked as a media consultant. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1986 and lost, then managed Ross Perot's Presidential Campaign in 1992.

Jordan was diagnosed with Lymphatic cancer on 9/14/1985, which he believes he got by being exposed to Agent Orange when he was in South Vietnam. After an aggressive attack of chemotherapy, Jordan's cancer went into remission. In 1991 he was able to overcome melanoma cancer and in 1995, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. His prostate was surgically removed the same year of diagnosis, and he was doing well by early 1996. Jordan has said "Becoming an active partner in medical decisions determines whether you will live or die." His three bouts of cancer has not made Jordan bitter. Far from it, he says, "I feel plain lucky to be alive."

An Atlantic reporter remarked that "Jordan's beaten the four C's. Cancer, cocaine, Carter and no cash." Jordan replied, "Look, 90% of what has been written about me is a hill of beans." (In 2000, Jordan released his book, "No Such Thing as a Bad Day", a book that is part political memoir and part survival story.

Divorced from his first wife in 1978, he married Dorothy Henry, 29, in 1981. They have three children. Dorothy, a former pediatric nurse, founded "Camp Sunshine," a summer retreat for children with cancer outside of Atlanta. Jordan died of cancer at his Atlanta home on May 20, 2008. He was 63.